Israelsen Summer Updates

Ya ya, it's been a while. Summer has been crazy and getting down to fire up the computer has been a task, but I'm here! Warning: this is a lengthy update. I just like to print this off for journal stuff so I try to add a bunch of stuff.

To update from the last blog, the wheat grinder is fabulous! I have made two batches of bread so far. The first batch wasn't my favorite but the second I made just today is so so yummy. It works like a charm. There is nothing quite like a fresh piece of bread right out of the oven. Mmmmm.

Next update: I feel pretty confident in saying Kenna is officially potty trained! Can you hear the heavenly choirs singing? I sure can. I don't go through near as many diapers- yay! She is really good at letting us know when she needs to go potty and is quite proud of herself. I am also very glad to say she doesn't have to have a sucker every time she poops, either. Yep, I resorted to sugar. What can I say? I was desperate to be done with the whole thing!

Speaking of my eldest little angel, we apparently have bears in the house. I have not actually seen one myself, but quite often find myself helping Kenna scare one out of a room when she is going in it. I try to downplay it so her imagination doesn't start to really kick in and scare her, so I'm trying to be inventive in my approach to the bears. This morning however, she said she "catched the bear." So funny. It is so fun to see her language develop. Lately she is learning how to use is, am, and are, and of course they get easily mixed up. She told me the other day, "I is funny!" She obviously has quite the imagination. We went to the park today and she had to come sit by me at the picnic table so we could eat "dinner." The table was empty, but boy was it delicious. Then we had to move around the table eating at a bunch of different seats. She is always pretending something with her baby and her stuffed animals.

Over the 4th of July a friend and I went up to a craft fair in Brianhead. I made a bunch of cute baby headbands and hooded towels. I must say, they turned out very cute. (Okay, thanks a ton to my awesome mom who made most of the towels- we spent a day while I was up North making some and had such a good time). We did the craft fair for two days (thanks daddy for having two days of bonding with the girls!) and it actually went really well. It was fun and I sold a pretty darn good amount for my first time. I had a lot of people ask about a website, so now I just need to decide how serious I want to get. Trying to sew with my two little darlings is quite an endeavor. I'll have to see what I decide.

SO- one of my husband's great talents is that he can be a real sweet-talker. Another one of his great talents is that he is a pretty good runner. So what happens when you combine these two great talents? Well friends, you get me, running a 5k. Yes, you read that right. ME. The one who would drive past the track at Sky View after school and laugh at all the hoo haws out there running on purpose. For some reason however, I told Jacob I would do it. We went up to Nephi a few weeks ago to the Ute Stampede rodeo with some cousins of Jacob's and discovered there was also a little "fun run" the next morning. Now, I don't really understand the title. I have never considered putting those two words together in the same sentence. On the way to the "fun run" I was quite certain I was heading into a death trap. Jacob was getting all geared up and was talking about how fast he wanted to run and the time he wanted to beat. My mind was in a daze- quite frankly I just wanted to cross the finish line. Alive. My only salvation was my wonderful sister-in-law Marlene who was so so kind to come run with me. We started off and my goal was to just make it through the first stretch before I started walking. Jacob of course was long gone. But we got that far and just pushed a little further to the next stretch. Before we knew it, we hit the two mile mark! "Holy cow, I think we can make it Marlene!" She was so good to endure all my cheering for us. Jacob finished and came back to find us and ran the rest of the way with us. Yes! For the first time in my life I ran three continuous miles! Mar, I couldn't have done it without you. Now here is the real kicker- I have since run another 5k. Yep, we went up to one in Beaver on the 24th. I am so proud to say I shaved 5 minutes off my time. And can I just brag about Jacob? He took second out of everybody. Way to go Jacob! He kicks my tooshie. We are planning on running one down in Hurricane in a few weeks. Hopefully I can shave some more time off. I'll keep you updated. Call me crazy but deep down I am starting to enjoy this running stuff.

A few weekends ago we headed up North to my family reunion at Bear Lake. We had a ton of fun. Allie LOVES the water and Kenna just likes to play in the sand. Fortunately after a few handfuls, Allie quit eating the sand. Jacob fried his legs playing golf with all the boys. Just goes to show that his legs NEVER see the sun. They probably see the sun about as much as a golf course sees Jacob. But, he was a good sport and had fun. Of course we didn't get as much time as we like up there, but we take what we can get.

My little Allie is getting her molars. I have decided they are the bi-polar molars. She is happy one minute and grouchy the next. Hmm, or maybe she is just a girl. Wow. She is still not walking yet, but loves to crawl and is starting to climb on things that are low enough. I was loading the dishwasher yesterday and turned around to see her standing on the door of the dishwasher and holding on to the top rack. Whoa there little lady! I had her downstairs the other day and she was too quick and got up quite a few stairs. I came running just in time to catch her before she hit the bottom. Ya, I felt like a million bucks. Parent-of-the-year award right there. Always on my toes.

Jacob and I were talking about small miracles the other day and for journal sake want to remember two little experiences we've had that remind me we are truly looked after. The first one was after a trip to Logan a few months ago. We always say a prayer before we leave to make sure all is well while we are gone and that we can travel safe. Well, we had just gotten home in time for Jacob to hurry and shower and get to work. Just before he pulled into the parking lot at work, the car started lurching and having some serious problems. It ended up needing a huge repair with the computer system and was out for a few days. Jacob called me to tell me about it and we both new immediately how blessed we were to make it home okay and that it wasn't until we were home safe that the car started having problems. The second one was a few weeks ago. Jacob had forgotten to turn the sprinkler off before he went to bed, and had it been left on all night, it probably would have ended up leaking a ton of water into our basement. Well, for some strange reason that night I had a crazy dream (I don't even remember what it was) but it made me sit up in bed and say something about water. It woke up Jacob and he remembered the water and ran out to turn it off. It was the weirdest thing. I didn't even know there was water on that needed to be turned off. Once again, we knew that we have these small little miracles that constantly remind us that the Lord is truly looking out for us. Hopefully I can slow down enough to recognize God's hand in my life because we are so incredibly blessed.

PICS:

My wheat grinder-love it!

Kenna got hold of the butter (and ate most of it-yuck!)

Allie's first piggy tails- can't believe she's almost 1!

June at the Israelsen's

I just purchased a wheat grinder. I've been hesitating, they aren't the cheapest little gadgets in the world. Oh by the way honey, if I forget to tell you and you read this, I just bought a wheat grinder. He he he. But, I finally decided that having 500 pounds of wheat will do me absolutely no good unless I have a wheat grinder. I'm certain using a stone from the backyard will get me tired much too quickly and we'll just starve- or just resort to eating wheat berries. I think it's a good purchase. I'll let you know how my new kitchen toy works. I'm excited to fire it up when it comes.

Pretty much Jacob and I have decided potty training is definitely not a strength either one of us possess. I'm not sure if I just have an incredibly stubborn 2 and 1/2 year old, or if I have really faulty training techniques. I will however, rejoice in a poop-in-the-potty triumph we had a few nights ago. I caution you, I am a mommy and I say it just how it is, so if you don't want to hear the potty talk, just skip on down to the next paragraph. Anyhow, we caught Kenna squatting and got her to the bathroom before the dirty missle had landed in the pull-up, and judging by the screaming it was much to her dismay. So to try to not make it a horrible experience for her and never have a potty success again, I tried to be as happy and excited as I could when she finally did her duty in the potty.
Me: "YAY Kenna! You did it, I am so happy for you! See, going in the potty is fun! Poo-poo loves to be in the potty and is so happy!"
Kenna: (she cocks her head to the side, scrunches up her cute little face and says,) "Mom, poo-poo can't talk. But it's nice!"
Yep, it sure is my little darling, it sure is. Yesterday I told her she could wear her very special panties but she couldn't pee in them or they would get all wet and dirty. So what does she do? She takes off her panties to pee on the carpet. Finding Nemo was much too enthralling to leave for the potty, I guess. Nice. I guess I'll just keep trying.

So I took Allie to the Dr. yesterday. She woke up with a fever and it would't come down, so when it hit 103 I called the Dr. Her ears looked good and from the blood test they couldn't tell if it was viral or bacterial but just in case put her on an antibiotic. She's been pretty fussy today, but hopefully will get back on track soon. Jacob got the random yuckies too, he came home from work sick yesterday but is better today- he must be anyway, he is out mountain biking. Yep, bikes are the newest project around here. Jacob found one on KSL and we picked it up with our bike cart that we also found on KSL in Salt Lake on our way home from Logan. Since then we have also added a bike from mom and dad Israelsen's (for me), a bike rack, and a helmet to the bunch. We've actually had fun taking the girls out for a few rides. They look so cute sitting in the bike cart together.

Last Saturday we met up with some friends (Mike and LeeAnn Adams) who have property up the mountain and got a jump start on firewood. Chances are if we wait much longer, we won't be able to afford the gas to get up there! They have two little girls too, so it was fun to get out and get dirty.

Our trip to Logan was a lot of fun. Kenna was in heaven having so many people to give her attention and play with. My mom and I spent the better part of a day sewing some really cute hooded towels that I am going to try and sell at a craft fair up Brianhead over the 4th of July. I'm also doing some cute baby headbands, so we'll see how they do.

Well, I guess it's time to go, Allie is on my lap screaming. She just isn't appreciating the blog. Hopefully one of these days I'll get the motivation (or time) to add some pictures.

The life of a two-year-old

I found a little line-up of Kenna's animals in the hallway yesterday. She told me they were in timeout because they didn't listen. Hmm, wonder where she got that from? She is such a parrot sometimes and has a killer memory. Yep, that means BE CAREFUL mom and dad! A few weeks ago I sang in sacrament meeting. When I got done and came to sit down, Kenna hopped into my lap and said "you're a good singer mom!" I looked at Jacob to let him know I appreciated the prompt, but he was just as surprised as I was and said that one was all her own. Then she grabbed my face in her hands and said, "That was wonderful! I'm so proud of you!" It was the sweetest thing in the world! I was really trying to figure out where she would have got that from and then finally I remembered. Later on that day when Kenna had a great potty moment I heard myself saying, "That was wonderful! I am so proud of you!" I instantly knew where she got it from. Ha! I'm so glad to know that the positive things are remembered as well as some of the not-so-fun mommy moments like timeout.

Well, it's official. My little Allie can crawl! She finally got her coordination figured out. It is so cute. Fortunately she still is content to stay put for the most part, but when she fully discovers her mobility I am really in for it. She is constantly moving some part of her body. Whenever she's in her carseat, she kicks her legs and gets herself rocking like crazy. It is the funniest thing to watch. I sometimes forget about it, but whenever we're in public and she gets a-rockin' we manage to get all sorts of attention. Especially when she kicks so hard the carseat falls back and she gets stuck. So then she'll just sit there and kick her legs some more. Silly little thing! It has been so fun with her lately. Jacob and I often comment on how nice it is we can really enjoy her without all the fussing.

This past week we finished up getting the side of our driveway done. We put up railroad ties for the back support, then planted some bushes in the front and filled it all in with some pretty red rock. It ended up pretty good, I must say. Tons better than it used to be. Considering what we had to start with when we moved in, we have made vast landscaping improvements. I just really have a hard time paying for rock. What? Paying for rocks? Even worse is having to pay for a load of dirt. Dirt? Now come on. What's next? Paying for worms? Wait a minute, they do sell worms. If that's the case, I really need to get in the business. Kenna at least would love it. Last week I showed her a grub worm that was crawling on the driveway and it instantly became her new best friend. Nice. Way to go mom. Now, I really struggle with creepy-crawly things, but am trying to not give Kenna the same heeby jeebies, so ya, I showed her the worm. She carried that thing around all afternoon! She kept squishing it and telling us how cute it was. Cute is definitely a stretch. Um, not even in the same ballpark my sweet little princess. I can think of a whole slew of other words to describe a grub worm. I tried hard to remain optimistic without letting my detest of the grub show through. She showed anyone who came within 50 feet. I told her to feed it to the chickens but she vehemently declined the offer saying, "No, it will die!" Well, I thought, it would meet its demise either by being pecked or smothered to death. Now if I were the little worm, I would opt to just get the whole thing over with quickly by the chickens rather than a slow, painful death in the grimy little hands of a two-year-old, but whatever. We add the grub worm to a growing list of creepy-crawlies Kenna has had to manipulate and investigate. We've already had grasshoppers, ants, and regular old slimy brown worms. I'm not sure what I'll do when she wants to hold a snake.....

We're Alive!

WOW. Almost a month since my last post? Woops. But, definitely time for an update. I have so much to update on this could take forever. I will try to abbreviate.

FIRST AND FOREMOST: I must tell y'all about my new BLING! So our anniversary was May 6th. Yep, the big 4! Yay for us! I ended up in Logan on Monday the 5th, and Jacob had to be up in South Jordan for work on the 7th and the 8th, so we didn't even see each other on our anniversary. Kinda weird, but okay. Anyhow, the girls and I finally met up with dad in Salt Lake on the 7th and stayed in the hotel with him. We were in the hotel getting ready for bed when Jacob handed me a little bag with a letter in it. He wrote me a beautiful little love note (sigh, I loved it) that had a huge wad of cash in it. I wondered "what the heck?!" Okay, didn't wonder, said that right out loud. He said he had been saving up. Hmm, nope, I do the checkbook, there is no way that amount could fly under the radar. He persisted and told me he wanted me to go buy the tracer band I've wanted to go with my wedding ring ever since we got married. I told him there was no way I was going to spend THAT much money on a ring for myself, and we could figure something else to do with it, oh, like put it into savings. Well, I finished getting ready for bed, hopped back into bed, and hopped right onto a little box. I can only imagine the look on my face seeing as though I had a really good idea of what was in that little black box. All I could do was huddle into Jacob and cry! He said, "you don't even know what it is yet!" I carefully took off the wrap and peered into the box to see an absolutely BEAUTIFUL diamond band. I was thinking of a nice little silver band but Jacob got me the the little silver band that included a row of amazing little diamonds in it. WOW. Double triple holy cow I can't believe it WOW. I was stunned. Floored. Humbled a bit, even? I just couldn't believe it. How did he do it? How did I not know about it? Well let me back up (this is getting way too long, but I just have to tell the whole story). A few weeks before my birthday I found a business card for a jeweler in Jacob's shirt pocket. I just smiled and kept it to myself wondering what my sneaky little husband was up to for my birthday. Well, my birthday was just perfect so I didn't worry too much about it. Then a while after my birthday, curiosity got the best of me and I asked Jacob about the card. He quickly came up with an elaborate story that he was helping out his brother who was looking into getting a little bling of his own for a special someone, but had been sworn to secrecy. He really is quite the little actor, and I ate it all up and my curiosity was satisfied. I was so fooled. I was actually thrilled that Karl was looking into getting a ring! So Jacob completely had me blindsided on our anniversary. It was like a little fairytale. I still look at it like a little girl and watch it sparkle. The bad news? I can't get my camera to take a good picture of it. I'll see if I can get it figured out. But if I keep putting off the blog it will never get updated. The other bad news? I was actually really very disappointed that Jacob's brother Karl isn't looking for a ring! And about the big wad of cash? Here is the most amazing and kind and thoughtful thing my husband could do: he sold a heifer. I don't think anyone truly understands how incredibly loving this is. Jacob, the animal lover, sold one of our heifers and took a large chunk of the profit just for me. So, the cash in my love note was the remaining amount from the heifer. Sounds silly, but it was one of the kindest gestures a girl could ever have. Thank you Jacob for being so wonderful. You don't know how much that meant to me. It's not the diamonds. It's knowing that I am married to a man who loves me more than anything in the world. Again, wow.

Okay, this is long. What else has been going on? Well, the girls and I drove with Grandpa Kerry down to Arizona for my cousins wedding. The trip actually went pretty well considering it was a 7 1/2 hour drive. Then we had a really quick trip up to Logan and Salt Lake and, like usual, didn't have nearly enough time to see anyone we wanted to see.

Kenna has some great news to share: she has had some great success on the potty this past week! YAY! Each day gets a little better so hopefully soon we can say she is officially potty-trained. I LOVE IT!

Allie is just a happy little cuss and cute as can be. She can't quite crawl but is trying to figure out how to get her caboose to catch up with the front of her body. Too fun! I am a little worried, though. When she gets going she won't stop which means I will be incredibly busy.

Well, that's it! Hopefully things will slow down a bit so I can be better at updating.

Oh, the pictures: First is me and the little ladies on Mother's Day. Thanks to Grandma Marsha for the incredibly cute dresses! Big shout out to Jacob (is he on a roll or what?!) for the beautiful corsage. The second picture: I came into my bedroom to find my silly little girls peeking out from under my bed. Still not quite sure how Allie got under there, but I have a suspicion her sister helped out a bit.

The Perfect Day

This week absolutely FLEW past. I just can't go another day without the update on my awesome birthday last Friday.

First thing in the morning Jacob got up to get ready for work and then left just like he usually does, and I stayed in bed. Well, the next thing I knew, Jacob had come back and brought me breakfast in bed from IHOP! Oh it was sooooo good and such a great surprise! I made him come snuggle with me in bed and share it. He decided IHOP would be a much better choice then his own cooking. I had to agree (I say that ever so lovingly). THEN when I told my sweet husband that he better get back to work before too long, he gave me my next surprise and told me he had taken the day off to spend with me. That right there was seriously the BEST gift for me! I was so excited. So we got up and got the girls ready and let Allie have her morning nap. After that I decided I wanted to go do some shopping. Right before we left I thought to myself that it was just barely noon and I already had a perfect birthday. So we went in and ended up at a yummy restaurant where I love to get soup and salad. We hadn't been in there too long when the next thing I know, my parents, yes, MOM AND DAD who I haven't seen for about 3 months, came around the corner of the restaurant. HOLY COW!! I couldn't believe it! All I could do was cry! It was such an incredible surprise. They ate lunch with us and I was in heaven being so spoiled. I was with the people I loved most and I couldn't ask for anything more. We came back and when we were unloading mom and dad's car, Jacob pulled out yet another surprise- a double jogging stroller! YAY! Let me back up- the day before I had been on a walk with the girls and our other stroller popped a wheel and pretty much died a miserable death. So I called Jacob and told him to get on KSL and find me one (I refuse to spend a fortune to get a brand new one- those suckers are expensive) anyhow, he had found one and my parents picked it up on their way down. I love it! It runs like a charm. I was just on cloud nine all day long. Jacob's sister Marlene came to town that night also, it was so fun to have so much family around. Later that night we topped off the day with an ice cream cake. The top of it had crushed pieces of Reese's Peanut Butter Cup on it and Kenna looked at it and said, "Hey, it's chicken poop!" Yep, that's my girl. Well, that was my day. It was so perfect. Thanks first to my awesome husband who went to so much work to make sure I had a great birthday and then for the incredible surprise of having my parents come down and also Marlene. What a blessed girl I am. What's next? Well, next week a road trip down to Mesa for a cousin's wedding. My dad is driving us down, so we'll see if we all survive 7 hours in a car! Wish us luck.

All in a day's work

So I made bread on Monday. There is nothing quite like a piece of hot, homemade bread fresh out of the oven. Mmm mmm! Fortunately I had already indulged in the first slice before Kenna got to it. Yep, I left the bread too close to the edge of the counter and my dear little 2 year-old got hold of it and worked her magic on it. At least she was able to destroy only one of the loaves. I'm learning to never turn my back. On our car ride home from the store this afternoon, I decided to let Kenna snack on a banana. She has done it before and eaten it like a good little monkey. Well, of course today I looked back to find her squishing it between her fingers. Nice. I was able to pull over and take care of the situation before she decided to finger paint with it. My little destroyer has been wreaking all sorts of havoc lately. Needless to say, my patience has been tried!

We spent the day Saturday out in the yard trying to liven up our driveway a bit. Kenna loved being out helping her daddy. Allie got out in the sunshine a bit too, and was thoroughly enjoying her time munching on the grass. Kenna loves to sit by Allie whenever she is on the ground and always manages to really get on Allie's nerves. She tries to love her, but really it's just pestering. Poor Allie is going to look like a mangled loaf of bread! We were over visiting some neighbors, and Kenna found some little flags that the power company puts up to show where the power lines are and she decided to make them her own. What was one of the first things she did with her flags? Oh, she just whacked her sister right in the legs. Yeah, double nice.

Anyone else follow The Biggest Loser? Yep, forgive me for abandoning Idol, but I really got into The Biggest Loser. Last night was the finale and it was so amazing to see how the people changed. WOW. I was definitely cheering for Ali to win. She looks absolutely stunning. If you didn't see it, Google it to find her before and after shots. Makes the poundage I want to lose look like a piece of cake. Or, I mean, a bag of carrots. Of course, if I went away for a few months and had no worries and someone to cook and clean for me, I would come out looking like a rock star too. Hmm. For now I'll just settle with running around trying to keep up with a two-year-old and hauling around a 20+ pound baby. Throw the carseat in the mix and we're looking at a good 30 pounds. Now calculate the times I haul the carseat out of the house, in and out of the car to make a few stops, take it in and out of the shopping cart, and lug the monster back into the house, it's amazing my arms don't look more like Popeye's. Maybe I should do lunges while holding the carseat. Then my legs will look like Fabio's. Hmm. Then I could compete on American Gladiators. What could my gladiator name be? I think Crush is taken. Amazon? Titania? Grinder?

Little Bo Peep

Kenna has some of those "Kidsongs" DVD's that she loves to watch. Yep, they're a buck at WalMart and just as cheesy as can be, but Kenna loves it. One of her favorites has a song about Little Bo Peep. So now Kenna loves to go out in the backyard and grab a long piece of rebar that has a crook at the end, then wander around saying "Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and can't tell where to find them." She says it over and over as she goes all over the backyard. I actually think she tries to herd the dogs with it. It's so funny to watch how she can be in her own little world sometimes.

Jacob has been staying pretty busy with tractor work. He loves his, I mean MY, little tractor. We got it on my birthday last year, so I remind him I let him borrow it. I did drive it the other night actually. AND I even dug up some dirt with it. Yep, I am really quite impressed with my tractor driving abilities! I am definitely diversifying my talents.

Shane, a good friend of Jacob's, and his wife Rachelle came down from Logan and visited last Saturday. Jacob was in heaven with a familiar working buddy and I really enjoyed a fellow mom to sit and chat with. We got a babysitter Saturday night after the Priesthood session and went and had a fun "grown-up" dinner together. Once again, it made us miss being at home around good friends we have a history with. We love company!

Allie is getting pretty darn good at sitting up on her own and is quite proud of herself. Still not sure when she'll start crawling, it will be a while. I'm not sure if I'm ready for that milestone or not! She gets bored easy and I can tell she is just itching to move around and investigate things, she just doesn't quite have the mobility. So I think she will be really happy when she can crawl around, but I'm afraid my world will suddenly explode. Kenna leaves everything out, Allie finds it and puts everything in her mouth, mom is always running around. Perhaps I should enjoy the days of baby confinement!

Oh, bad news. My memory card on my camera is almost full. But I can't delete any because I haven't gotten them printed yet! Oh, I am so far behind! I'm going to have to do it a little at a time otherwise it will cost me a fortune. My internet is way too slow to do it from my computer. Nice one Britt.